The relative-gains problem for international cooperation. (Letter to the Editor)

Robert Powell and Duncan Snidal suggest diverse approaches to international relations involving modern realism and neoliberal institutionalism. Both theories attempt to define the anarchical content in the international system, its inhibition of joint action between states, which otherwise share common interests, and the states' overcoming these inhibitions through cooperation.

Snidal's model is criticized because it is based on assumptions which seem to ignore rather than address realist arguments. Powell's model is also flawed, as it ignores the vital additional sources of sensitivity to ...

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